KOCHI: The local fund audit report of the Kochi Corporation for the 2018-19 financial year has revealed serious lapses by the civic body’s administration and said it led to heavy losses. Released on Thursday, the report also found serious financial irregularities under various heads, including tax collection and waste management. The report said the corporation’s inefficiency in implementing online tax collection significantly affected its revenue. Due to the non-implementation of the facility, a lion’s share of revenue collection continued to be done through manual receipts which led to leakage of funds, it said.
It also found that receipts that were audited and cancelled years ago were misused for tax collection. The report said `4.5 lakh was missing in the books by writing a fake receipt number in the booking register of Mattanchery Town Hall and Kalvathi community hall. It is also alleged that the receipt books used during the audit period were not given to the audit department for inspection.
The report also pointed towards lack of coordination between various departments and shortcomings in internal control. It said despite having several building complexes under its limits, the corporation could not collect taxes from the buildings effectively. No action was initiated in cases where cheques bounced and returned cheques were not recorded in the account.
“The corporation has lost a lot of money due to such irregularities. Bank withdrawals are not included in the cash book and it is not clear how the withdrawn funds would be spent,” said the report. “There is a rule that a special council session must be convened within a month of the publication of the audit report for discussions. However, the UDF-led council has never done so in its tenure,” said LDF parliamentary party secretary V P Chandran.